First Sunday of Lent
Well, I was tempted not to
give a homily, but then I chose else.
Because that’s what a temptation is.
You can go either way. You can
choose to give into the temptation to either do evil or you can choose to go
the other way and go what is right and good.
And that’s really what a temptation is.
So many people say, “Well the devil made me it.” Oh no.
You have free will, I have free will.
We can never say somebody else made me do it. We all need to take responsibility for our
decisions and maybe that’s really what comes through our scriptures today, is
that you and I do have this ability within us, by the Holy Spirit, to choose
what is right and good.
It happened to Jesus. How did He overcome the temptations of the
devil? Basically He threw it back at the
devil. Maybe a little refrain that you
and I could take with us during this Lent 2010 would be “Get behind me
Satan.” Whenever we’re in that situation
where we find ourselves, do I do this or do I do that, rise up and say, “Get
behind me Satan, I’m going the opposite way.”
Now the three temptations
presented to Jesus today I think have some parallels in our own lives. Really you could come down to, I think three
words for each of the temptations. First
one would be food, then fortune and fame.
The first temptation is to
be successful. Okay, if you are the Son
of God, turn this stone into bread.
Alright. Now the temptation there
somehow is to use the energy, the strength that you and I have to get some
immediate gratification perhaps. Now
isn’t it interesting. Turn the stone
into bread. A lot of time people will
say, “I’m self sufficient. I can do it
by myself. I have the power, everything
I need within me.” Yeah, in one sense
you do. Okay, if you’ve got that power
turn this brick into bread. I’m
waiting. Still looks like a brick to me. We don’t have that power do we to turn bricks
into bread. Not that kind of power. We have the power within though to turn our
hearts of selfishness into charity, to turn bitterness into forgiveness, to
turn doubt into faith and trust. There’s
where the real power is, not in the externals.
So maybe that’s what the devils was trying to temp Jesus to do. Take the
easy way out. You’ve got the power. You’re the Son of God. Jesus says, “No, I won’t fall into that
trap.”
The second temptation, I
kind of put the idea of fortune behind it.
“If you are the Son of God then throw yourself down I’ll give you all
these kingdoms and everything. Worship
me.” Again Jesus said, “Uh, uh. Only God do you worship.” For us perhaps practically would be where do
we spend our time, our money, our energy, our efforts? What is it that you seem to put more
enthusiasm into? Is it the things of the
heart? The spirit, joy, compassion,
peace, understanding, forgiveness, mercy, thoughtfulness? Or is it into all these external things?
Take a look at the amount of
time you spend on anything, that will tell you and me what we are
worshipping. It’s very practical, down
to earth.
The third temptation again
might be, “If you are the Son of God, the okay the Lord will support you. God will take care of you.” There might be a tendency there again to the
externals and to say, “Okay God, you’ve got to take care of me. I’m just along for the ride. Feed me, clothe me, shelter me, take care of
everything. I’m Your disciple after all
aren’t I?” No you and I have eyes, ears,
hands and feet. God entrusts this world
to you and to me at this moment in time.
He will give you and me the strength that we need to do what we
can. Jesus says, “You don’t test God,
you trust God.”
In what do we place our
trust. Again it kind of flows from that
second temptation. Where do we spend our
time, our money, our energy, our efforts.
Now we look at those in the gospel that way.
I think my reflections are
meaning to me, taking all three of those temptations and put into this
context. I think in many ways our
greatest temptation in our culture and our society today is the temptation to
neglect the inner life. What do I mean
by that? How many of you have cell
phones? Are they turned off right now? How many of us have computers? IPODs?
We are a wired society are we not?
Everywhere you and I go. You walk
into Target. You go into any store. You go anywhere. You can be standing out here in the hallway
and you are going to see someone with a cell phone and they are going to be
carrying on a conversation. And isn’t it
amazing how many conversations you need to listen to. And don’t you get a little tired of saying,
“I don’t want to know what you are going to be getting at the grocery store,
‘Honey I’m in aisle 6, what did you want me to get?’”
Ever notice, when I was
flying home a couple weeks ago from my Dad’s funeral coming back and in the
airport everybody is sitting there in the lounge and they’re talking on the
phone. And it’s amazing time, after
time, we get on that plane. They say, “Turn
off all your cell phones.” And there was
a man two or three rows over. We were
getting ready, almost ready to lift off and “RING, RING” and he had to wake up
from his little sleep to realize he hadn’t turned his cell phone off. We land, and the exact same guy, pulls out
his cell phone, “Honey we just landed.”
Duh—we all know we just landed.
So we are wired. We are constantly in communication. Working, talking. When is the time for quiet silence. How many of you take your cell phone into
your bathroom? Huh? I’ve been talking to somebody and all of a
sudden you hear this “flush”. And I say,
“I’m really important to you aren’t I?
You bring me into your bathroom.”
So isn’t there a time, maybe
this Lent, why couldn’t we just say enough.
Okay we need these things.
They’re good things in themselves, no problem with that. But perhaps when will you and I take some of
the quiet time to go inside ourselves and just to be there. No IPODs, no cell phones, no sitting in front
of a computer, just you stuck with yourself in quiet. And then allow the spirit to well up something
within you.
This would be a beautiful
Lent maybe to consider the practice of coming to our Adoration Chapel where you
could be totally alone with Jesus in prayer.
There are no computers back there in that chapel. There is no WiFi, it’s just Jesus and
you. What a great gift to give
yourself.
Perhaps maybe just a simple
little thing but I believe it would do wonders for us as individuals and maybe
as a community, maybe even as a world society if we could quiet down a little
bit and go deeper within. The temptation
is not to face ourselves.
All those temptations again,
remember, they were so much of the externals, fortune, food and fame. Why are we afraid to go inside and just to be
along with the Lord and ask the Lord to fill me up, guide me, lead me. Silence is good. Take the quest and be quiet and silent. Try it out for 40 days and see what happens.
The journey of Lent is a
great time to know that we can change, we can grow. We don’t always have to keep doing it the
same way. I can go in a different
direction. Choose to go quietly within
with the Lord. It will be a beautiful
Lent.